assuming Knight is the starting PG, we have almost 20 mil locked up in 2 guys at SG both of which would not start on most teams in the league. Nearly 40% of the soft cap will be locked up in those 2 for this year and 2 more after that.

Something is wrong with that picture. Why does Dumars like players from the past losing seasons so much.

Agreed. Bout double what I would of paid him to be on this team. I could seem him getting 3 years and 18 mil on a good team that needs a third guard, but not on a team that is mediocre at best. I don't see him getting any better the Stuckey we had last year will be the same Stuckey we will have the next 3 years why would we pay him 8 mil a year for that?

Agreed. Bout double what I would of paid him to be on this team. I could seem him getting 3 years and 18 mil on a good team that needs a third guard, but not on a team that is mediocre at best. I don't see him getting any better the Stuckey we had last year will be the same Stuckey we will have the next 3 years why would we pay him 8 mil a year for that?

This was a very good signing. 10 million per would have been hard to swallow. But his peers in this league signed for that much. Stuckey is a fine player, and the Pistons can't afford not to retain good talent (still potential all-star ability) at a fair price. Stuckey and Knight could become one of the top young backcourts in the league.

Now the issue becomes, how does Daye get his PT and will Gordon regain his top 6th man form. Stuff has to be sorted out for sure, but I'm not 100% convinced that we wouldn't be better off trading Gordon .

We didn't need Stuckey. It's not like he'll make the difference in us even making the playoffs.
More than 8 million per season...even at three years...is too much.
I woulda offered 3 years at 13 million.........and then watched him walk.
Joe blew this one badly........Tom Gores will get you Joe...........

~8M/y is a bit too high but not high enough for me to be upset. I wouldn't have gone over 7M/y and somewhere around 6M/y would have been fair value imo. I'm just glad Joe didn't go crazy with some 55M/5y deal or something like that. I still like this deal better than Tays.

the problem isn't that this is a bad contract, the problem is that gordon is making 11 million this year, 12 million next year, and 13 million 3 years from now (player option, would be crazy not to take it). gordon would be a great 6th man for about $5 million/year for a playoff team but he seems out of place here.

one of the main benefits of having both knight and stuckey is that we should NEVER see gordon trying to play PG again...and i hope gordon doesn't try to. he was a horrendous turnover machine last year and couldn't run the offense. the other thing is without stuckey, we had a very small backcourt with bynum/gordon logging heavy minutes, both of whom are terrible defenders. now stuckey (good defender, size) and knight (has the tools to be a good defender, size) can log the bulk of the minutes.

Wins and losses are a lot less important than whether the team develops a good attitude and good hard working habits and whether the core guys on the team develop into a strong core or are traded for assets that come together well. So, this is a season that should be judged on how Knight, Stuckey, Gordon, Daye, Jerebko and Monroe develop and mesh. It should also be a season that should be judged on how Dumars makes trades and adjustments to the roster: guys like CV, Maxiell, Bynum and perhaps even Tay (although I predict that Tay wouldn't be moved until sometime in the 2012-13 season) and maybe even one or two of the guys I think are the core guys going forward) could/should be moved along.

With Stuckey on the roster, if things come together under Coach Frank, we do have the potential to be a playoff team. Even so, I'd prefer the young guys to play well but still take their lumps, and for us to have a ton of ping pong balls. If we can pull all that off, I could see us being known as one of the real up-and-coming team by the 2013 season.

I do not agree with your logic. First of all I found the contract to be too big but if we disregard that and only consider the part about signing him for 3 more years there is certainly not a "must" for me to agree with him that the fault was only because of coaching nor must I predict a playoff spot. My prediction would be somewhere around 30 wins, 20 if we underachieve and 40 if we have a bunch of overachivers on the roster but why would the win-loss record of the 2011-12 season be the only thing to consider when signing a player?

How are we measuring that guys are playing well if our record is.........let's say.....25-40 in this 65 game season?
How do we measure developing and meshing....let's say...the team is 25-40 this season?
Do we ask the players? Do we ask the fans? Do we ask JD when he's on his way out?

To me...those qualities always result in additional wins and the proclamation by most here that the team has improved. I would be happy with the majority of bloggers here stating that the team has improved...

Brap.........Thanks for at least predicting a playoff spot as a result of better play.

For me, that should project out to at least 31-35 wins in the East this season's 65 game schedule..........